Charged Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Wappingers Falls, New York, USA · 2023

Lama Norlha Rinpoche / Kagyu Thubten Choling: sangha disclosure and federal abuse lawsuit

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Charged

Authority role

founding abbot and incarnate lama of a Karma Kagyu monastery

Organization

Kagyu Thubten Choling

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

Norlha used his position and authority as founding abbot and incarnate lama over students in multi-year retreats, where guru-devotion and dependence on the teacher for retreat guidance are documented as preventing resistance or disclosure for decades.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2023-11-17 · civil suit filed (Trafficking Victims Protection Act; NY Adult Survivors Act)

U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Lama Norlha Rinpoche, founding abbot of Kagyu Thubten Choling, was found by a 2017 sangha-wide disclosure (facilitated by An Olive Branch) to have been sexually involved with multiple female students over decades. In November 2023 three women sued the monastery and named officials in the Southern District of New York under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and New York's Adult Survivors Act. Norlha died in 2018.

Documented coercion mechanisms

authority over students in prolonged retreats
guru-dependency preventing disclosure

Cited record

Sources

institutional reporting charging report 'Lawsuit Alleges Decades of Sexual Assault at Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in New York', Buddhistdoor Global, 17 Nov. 2023.: Reports the SDNY federal lawsuit under the TVPA and Adult Survivors Act over decades of alleged abuse at Kagyu Thubten Choling.
institutional reporting institutional acknowledgment 'Kagyu Thubten Choling addresses sangha about Lama Norlha Rinpoche's sexual misconduct with students', Lion's Roar (2017).: Documents the 2017 sangha-wide disclosure of Norlha's sexual misconduct with students.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/lawsuit-alleges-decades-of-sexual-assault-at-tibetan-buddhist-monastery-in-new-york/ Corpus classification: institutional-reporting; evidentiary role: charging-report.
Retrieval: 2026-07-27 · Retrieval failed; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.lionsroar.com/kagyu-thubten-choling-addresses-sangha-about-lama-norhla-rinpoches-sexual-misconduct-with-students/ Corpus classification: institutional-reporting; evidentiary role: institutional-acknowledgment. SHA-256 d2bc13d127d67308fb07d47836fcf6271fc2641c6c9038df4b0eaf9459a9593b
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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